Pico Sacro
“Picture in your mind a colossal pyramid on the horizon of a valley, a gigantic obelisk rising to meet the landscape of the plain, a conical mountain crowned, like Cybele in mythology, with fantastic battlements of quartz: behold the Pico-Sagro of the lower Ulla.
This height is the crater of downpours and the forge of lightning. It is the symbol of mystery and solitude. The pyramid has belonged to religion since it was first placed over tombs. Mountain or catafalque, the pyramid is the messenger of a resigned melancholy. The Pico-Sagro is watched, consulted and spied on by the people of the lower Ulla. It is the guardian father of the district: a colossal barometer. It is like the grandfather of a family, greeted with respectful veneration wherever he appears. The clouds rest on its summit; in the heart of its long slopes one senses fearsome galleries. The wind drives the seeds towards its fabled granaries; the storms that tear away the rocks piled on its summit, over the paths opened by the floods, come out of its cavernous abyss.”
This height is the crater of downpours and the forge of lightning. It is the symbol of mystery and solitude. The pyramid has belonged to religion since it was first placed over tombs. Mountain or catafalque, the pyramid is the messenger of a resigned melancholy. The Pico-Sagro is watched, consulted and spied on by the people of the lower Ulla. It is the guardian father of the district: a colossal barometer. It is like the grandfather of a family, greeted with respectful veneration wherever he appears. The clouds rest on its summit; in the heart of its long slopes one senses fearsome galleries. The wind drives the seeds towards its fabled granaries; the storms that tear away the rocks piled on its summit, over the paths opened by the floods, come out of its cavernous abyss.”
Neira de Mosquera, “El Pico-Sagro”. Semanario Pintoresco Español (1851).
